Former Cop Now Patrols Cyber Beat
The Windows 95 icon on Mark J. McLaughlin’s computer screen looks familiar, except for one unusual aspect. The identifying letters are in Chinese.
“Sometimes we run into language issues,” McLaughlin says. “So we have to bring in an interpreter.”
For the 42-year-old forensic investigator, the digital symbol on his computer represents one in a series of clues he’s uncovered for a client of Investigative Group International, an organization of 100 investigators in offices from New York to Seattle and in several overseas locations. As IGI’s high-tech specialist, McLaughlin dissects data for major corporations, financial institutions and law firms seeking evidence of white-collar crime.
“I perform computer autopsies,” explains McLaughlin, sitting in his spartan, 24th-floor office overlooking downtown Los Angeles.
In a recent trademark infringement case, for example, McLaughlin seized four computers and downloaded the hard drives onto a disk. He then uploaded the files onto his office PC to search for the “smoking gun.” That’s when he encountered the language barrier.
A former reserve cop, technical consultant and businessman, McLaughlin possesses the background and skills IGI deputy director Sergio A. Robleto was looking for in 1996 to help on a fraud conspiracy case. The temporary assignment became a full-time job last June.
“He’s quite a high-tech guru,” says Robleto, a former police homicide commander. “Because of his background in installing computer systems and setting up companies with systems, he really understands the architecture. He’s a real whiz at breaking codes, analyzing techniques used in hiding information and reconstructing dumped files.”
Though the technology component is the organization’s fastest-growing area, McLaughlin is only one of three full-time experts IGI employs in that field. (The other two are at IGI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.) However, the firm makes ample use of consultants on specific jobs, such as installing phone bugs and surveillance cameras and making electronic sweeps, says Los Angeles director Henry Kupperman.
“We hire very slowly because we put tremendous responsibility on individuals and because our work is very, very sensitive,” Kupperman, a former partner at a Los Angeles law firm, says of IGI’s staff of 20, which consists of ex-lawyers, FBI agents, police officers and a former investigative reporter.
IGI’s client list is confidential, but some cases have appeared in the media, such as the 1992 United Way theft, the State Department’s international policing in Haiti and the Democratic National Committee probe of foreign contributions to the presidential trust fund.
Pay for full-time investigators can be as high as six figures. McLaughlin bills $150 an hour and usually handles several jobs at once.
“It’s fun; it’s always something different,” McLaughlin says with a smile. “I have a short attention span, so it helps when I have interesting cases to work on.”
Susan McRae is a freelance writer in Los Angeles. E-mail her at sumacl@earthlink.net
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AT A GLANCE
* Name: Mark J. McLaughlin
* Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Redlands
* Experience: Long Beach police reserve officer, 1976-79; sales for GE, Wells Fargo, PacTel Finance, 1981-86; consultant, computers, management, technical installation, 1986 to present
* Home: Studio City
